These two sections of the Nakasendō are at times rather horrible, with hiking along very busy highways that for long stretches have absolutely no pavements. So I have taken a detour to the Hikone castle, which was part of my plan from the start. The Hikone castle near lake Biwa was built by one of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s most trusted generals, Ii Naomasa. Or at least he started building it, but because of wounds received during the battles he died long before it was finished. His son continued the work, and it stood finished in 1622 about twenty years later.

This detour nominally adds about three kilometres to the path, but as I also spent some time in the Genkyuen garden which is at foot of the castle. I visited the Hikone harbour too, as the Nakasendō doesn’t come close to the eastern shores of Japan’s largest lake otherwise. It will touch the western shore in Ōtsu-juku though.

The whole Genkyuen garden was created in the 17th century, and while there have been some changes made over the years, it remains an excellent example of early Edo period landscaping.

The castle itself is surrounded by several rings of moats, and it used to be right on the lake front. Land reclamation has moved it away from the waters of Biwa, even though the canals and their inhabitants still protect it from invaders!

The Hikone castle was the site of a spectacular aerial battle as well!

Well inside the inner part of the castle, there were a lot of stairs, but being the experienced Nakasendō hiker that I now am, I laughed at these puny steps! Further up there were more defensive constructions, and yet another masugata.

At the top I was still defeated, not by further steps or anything as trivial as that, but by… other tourists and scores and scores of school kids…

The waiting time was estimated to be over an hour, if I understood the guards correctly. Going inside this relic will have to wait for another time! Also, the Hikone castle museum was closed so I didn’t get to see the 19th century painting of the battle of Sekigahara as I had hoped. Yet another reason for wanting to come back.

I won’t bore you with pictures from the actual Nakasendō today, as that would just be: road, road, road, destroyed milestone, road. So yeah.

Milestones passed today

The Haramura ichirizuka. Well, I actually bypassed the site of this milestone with my detour. On the other hand, there is nothing left of it, and it has no stone or information sign so I don’t feel that I missed a vital part of the Nakasendō experience exactly.
The Hōshi ichirizuka has also been lost and has no sign.
The Ishihata ichirizuka has a small sign at least.

Map vs App: 13.9 kilometres (not including the detour) vs 23 kilometres (including the castle, the garden, and the lake etc).